Miller Family Kisumu, Kenya: Protesting, Gunshots, And A Calm Only God Can Bring.

Hello again everyone,
So quite honestly I have not been keeping a daily journal like I had been, an I don't know if that will return right away...we will see.
How much can I journal about being cooped up in the compound the last week?! yeah kinda boring...

Playing spike ball

we have sewed many dresses, read many books, made much food, painted much, an the pastors cleaned up a storage room, ate the donuts we made, an had pastors meeting....so as most of you probably know that Uhura Kenyatta was announced the winner once more, an we were shocked by the outburst of anger by the luos...the winner was announced Friday night, an soon after seeing it on the news, we heard shouting, wailing, an utter-chaos...us youth scrambled up on our house roof, an looked down onto the city where the riots were, we sat on the hard tile roof for at least an hour or more, watching as the fires lite up the black sky, an tires burned throwing clouds of black smoke into the air, we cud hear as the throng made its way down ring road, small tin shacks were being torn apart, stones flying, an then the police, an army people arrived, an we promptly heard tear gas, an gunshots being fired over an over, till the storm of people had quieted down, an only the smoke an fires remained...the gate guard soon came an told us to leave the roof, since he was afraid stray bullets would hit us if we sat there, we then came down, an needless to say it was a rather sleepless night for most of us, as there were gunshots going off when I feel asleep, but thanks to my trusty fan, I was able to sleep through most of it, the next morning we woke up to more gunshots, an throughout the day some too, but mostly silence was everywhere, waiting for what "Baba" the luos candidate Raila would have to say, as of today he has still kept silent, he is remaining quiet, an everyone is in suspense, if he says "peace" the luos will somewhat relax, if he says "it was robbed from me, we fight!" then we can only be stuck inside the compound much longer, praying that Gods will would prevail. So pray for us as we wait, he was supposed to make a public announcement today, but then it was cancelled, so we are all hoping by tomorrow he will tell his voters, an tribe, what to do.

The ladies sitting around the fire before supper

The one day we had a small scale chicken butchering, or I might say "rooster" butchering, we had 12 roosters that were making a lot of racket, an needed to be butchered, so our family got up Saturday morning, an butchered most of them, a few of the pastors also came to help abit, then we put all the meat into a marinade, an had a big chicken BBG Sunday night.

Sunday we were also stuck inside, our churches out in the interior had to go on as best as possible...we missionaries however enjoyed having "church" with ourselves, we all gathered at bishop Wayne's house, an under a big shade tree, we worship God, us youth sang several songs, an also a song that we had written the night before, using "The Battle Belongs To The Lord" as the song, only changing words, that was quite an experience, as us youth sat around, someone came up with the brilliant idea that we should write other words to that tune to express our present election conditions, it turned out quite a success, an the missionaries really enjoyed it...a native family on the compound here also joined our little service.

The Men playing botchy-ball

Sunday was a relaxing day, however waking up, to native church singing into their loud speakers like they usually do, an gunshots chattering in the distance, gave Sunday a strange feel.

But the week passed by safely an that's what we are thankful for...Monday things were peaceful enough that a group of us went to town to get some things an to evaluate the damage done so far, I took some pictures an was pleasantly surprised that there wasn't more damage done.

Monday night it was still peaceful, so us youth made a flying trip to Java house, had a lovely super together, an just enjoyed being outside!

Today there was some tension on a very low scale since Baba was supposed to talk today, but then the speech was canceled once more.

So that is all I can update you on for now, keep praying an thanks so much for all your prayers already.

Have a blessed week,

~Sylvia

For The Miller's